Featured: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Lesley Brey
Reporter
In the wake of a historic election, the face of American politics is quickly changing. One of the largest shifts has been within the Supreme Court, with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her subsequent replacement to be Justice Amy Coney-Barrett.
There is no telling what the fallout will mean for U.S. constitutional law, but if you wanted to know how we got to this point Idaho State University is offering a class entitled RBG: Law and Legacy this spring semester.
This three-credit, 3000 level political science class is available without prerequisites and will cover topics ranging from Justice Ginsburg’s time on the circuit courts, her political advocacy, her judicial philosophies, the rise of her cult of personality and reflections on her legacy as a champion of women’s rights. It is a web course taught by ISU’s own Edward Kammerer, an east coast native who has not only worked as an attorney but who also has his Ph.D. in law and public policy.
As this is considered a special topics course, next semester will be your only chance to take it. At the time of writing, there are only 11 seats left available.
“A lot of people know about her as the ‘Notorious RBG,’ there’s keychains and memes and pins. She became this pop-culture icon, but there’s a deep body of work that I don’t think people always appreciate; that’s what I’m really excited to get people thinking about,” said Kammerer.
Justice Ginsburg began her law career in 1960 after attaining her degree from Columbia University. She worked in research, spent some time as a law clerk and even became a tenured professor by 1969. However, she began making waves in 1972 when she started working with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“She started out as a women’s rights advocate, but she really took off working with the women’s rights law project of the ACLU, laying the foundation for our understanding of what the equal protection clause covers,” said Kammerer.
Over the next decade, Ginsburg would fight a series of high profile court cases focusing on the law’s treatment of women, achieving many victories while still facing losses.
“Justice Ginsburg as an attorney was really adept at highlighting how laws that seemed to help women also hurt them and hurt men,” said Kammerer.
The expansion of the circuit courts in 1978 resulted in a push to nominate more judges from minority backgrounds. Justice Ginsburg was subsequently nominated to the courts by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
The focus of the course is going to be on the two big facets of her career: her legal advocacy work and her time as a justice. The transition between her work as an attorney and her work as a justice highlights many unique features of her judicial philosophy, many of which are still being debated today.
This course offers an important perspective, especially in the months following her death with the longevity of her legacy now in question. Many of her landmark opinions stand to be overturned in the following years, leaving legal scholars to grapple with the aftermath.
“Is that legacy, is that advocacy work that she did to give us this framework for analyzing the equal protection clause, is that going to stay in place? Is that going to be dismantled? Is it going to be altered?” asks Kammerer.
These are only a few questions the course will be reflecting on. That isn’t to say that Justice Ginsburg’s legacy is a perfect one; she faced opposition from a variety of angles, and not all of her rulings were popular. She rarely shied away from expressing her opinions, a trait which at times put her in conflict with her usual allies. Infamously, she critiqued the legal reasoning behind Roe V. Wade, a case that happened before her time, finding it weak and vulnerable to overhaul.
Regardless of whether she was loved or hated, it is hard to deny that she was a legal giant. This course offers an opportunity for students to think critically about the open-ended questions her legacy poses.
“Justice Ginsburg really is a transformative person in the legal world. She warrants examination. This is a pivotal moment to look at what her legacy means as it is being contested,” said Kammerer.
So, if you need another three credits this semester, try out RBG: Law and Legacy, Pols 3350, CRN 28090.
